Every year, people see the bell ringers next to their red kettles outside businesses collecting change for the Salvation Army — a tradition that began in 1891 and became the agency’s biggest fundraiser of the year.

Maj. JoAnn Muré of the Salvation Army of Onslow County said that the red kettle campaign began in 1891 in San Francisco when the Salvation Army there wanted to provide a free Christmas dinner to the area’s poor.

“One of the officers went out with a pot and people put money into it,” she said.

This year the Red Kettle Campaign starts today.

Muré said that the donations help locally throughout the year. “It is actually about 10 percent of our budget, the largest fundraiser of the year,” she said.

“We have our social service programs — food, clothing, utility and rental assistance. We also do casework and counseling, youth services and senior programs.”

The major said that last year the local chapter of the Salvation Army gave out assistance that valued $350,000 for Onslow and Jones counties.

The year before, the value of the assistance was only $250,000. “We are up around $100,000 in assistance this year,” she said. “We served over 16,000 clients last year.”

Muré would like to see volunteers completely take over the bell ringing statons.

“Our goal is to have 100 percent volunteers ringing the bell at every location every day,” Muré said. “Last year, volunteers raised about 45 percent of what we raised. We had a great response through volunteers.”

This year, she said National Dodge is rotating employees for a week to ring the bell at Wal-Mart.

“We’re encouraging businesses to take a day or a whole week and allow employees to rotate out to ring the bell. That way, we are able to glean the most money to help people in need throughout the year.”

“This year, we have quite a few volunteers signed up. We are encouraging other groups and individuals to sign up too. It’s never too late — unless it is 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve,” she said.

If individuals or groups want to sign up to volunteer as bell ringers for the Red Kettle Campaign, they can visit redkettlevolunteer.org, register and request certain dates. Or volunteers can call the office at 910-346-8800.

“People don’t realize how much difference a handful of change can make,” Muré said. “It makes a lot of difference.”

Contact Daily News Reporter Tabitha Clark at 910-219-8454 or Tabitha.Clark@jdnews.com. Follow her on Twitter at @TabithaLClark or friend her on Facebook.